A Striking Analysis of the Unprecedented Growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in Churches Worldwide

Revival movements have grown at an unpredictable pace, from the birth of the Pentecostal movement at the beginning of the twentieth century to the first waves of charismatic movement revival in the 1950s and 1960s, to the third wave in the late twentieth century and finally into the twenty-first century.

Many believe this is a new global outpouring or perhaps a final outpouring of the Holy Spirit whose growth has far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Pentecostals and Charismatics combined have grown from approximately 20 million people in 1960 to over 600 million in 2020. The newness of the Charismatic movement has influenced large portions of the Church in thousands of denominations and in almost every country. Despite some weaknesses (let us not forget that weak and sinful humans are also involved in this matter), Charismatic revival and renewal have kept the faith of more than half a billion people alive in an era when countless opposition and temptations are pouring in from all sides.

Taken from the annual statistical report of Operation World organization in the prayer archive for January 1st for the world.

Source of this report: https://operationworld.org/prayer-calendar/01-01/

While Muslims have the claim of conquering the world and boast of their growth and have filled all social networks with their false news, Spirit-filled and fiery Christians are taking possession of the hearts of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Based on the above report, it can be concluded that the movement of God’s Spirit is unstoppable. Although Islam, over 1400 years (approximately 14 centuries) of its existence, using force, creating terror in lands, conquering countries through war and bloodshed, violating the daughters and women of those nations, enslaving them, bearing many children through polygamy, and maintaining its followers by threatening them with death in case of apostasy, has only managed to reach close to one billion nine hundred million followers, Spirit-filled Christians, by the grace and mercy of God, have been able, in less than a century and without shedding a drop of blood, without violence, killing and slaughter, bearing children through polygamy, or threatening their followers, to introduce 600 million people to the love of Christ and make them his disciples.

(It is worth noting that the number of Christians persecuted and oppressed in our current world is not included in this statistic, and if we were to add them to this count, the number of Christ’s followers would likely be much higher than the stated number. For example, millions of Christians from Islamic backgrounds in our country Iran and many other Islamic countries are not included in this statistic.)

Although we celebrate this great victory that has resulted in the salvation of hundreds of millions of people in less than a century, we are careful to give all honor and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ and the work that his Spirit is doing. May we be disciples who are filled daily with God’s Spirit and Word, and while engaged with other saints in bringing the good news of the Gospel throughout the world, may we be worthy witnesses of the Gospel of Christ and serve humanity with unconditional love.

In hope of the day when “as the waters cover the sea, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord” (Habakkuk 2:14).

Compiled and written by: Rev. Varje Babakhanian

It should be noted that the above article was taken from the Porpasokh website and has been published in cooperation between this site and the fcnn website.